Seen From the Past Week

Monopoly Gets a Facelift.
Saw this news in one of my company's newsletter. After years of using the vintage car, iron and terrier car as tokens, even this game also needs to be upgraded to keep up with the times. Check out the updated tokens. Link here


IMF: Protection or Prison?
Saw this news in the Straits Times last Tuesday and my first impression from the photo is "This photos looks like it's been taken outside Changi Prison than Suntec City." Just a day before the IMF meeting starts, fences are being setup around various locations where IMF delegates will be gathered. This is to, in the words of our government, to protect our honorable guests. What's there to protect? Protest are banned, all roads to Suntec are closed, everyone who enters the vicinity are being spot-checked. I wonder the type of impressions the delegates and representatives will have from all these. More photos of the new Suntec Prison can be seen here.


Coffee is Good?
Took this ad at a bus stop. When does coffee ever makes us healthier? Other than keeping us awake esp. after lunch, the only other benefits I could think of from drinking coffee is helping to speed up our sperm. So I can't comprehend the reasons behind Healthy Choice Board's decision in awarding the Healthier Tag to this coffee brand.


Talking Cock In Parliament.
This event was held a few weeks ago at the Old Parliamentary Chamber. And it was a roar. Unfortunately, I did not attend the event, But thanks to MrBrownShow and YouTube, I get to see some of the highlights of the event. The performance by Hossan Leong is my favourite. A definite must watch for all Singaporeans.



Man Pushes Lady Onto MRT Track
This incident happens last Friday. And thanks to the wonders of modern camera phones, some people manage to take some photos of the incident. One of the guys who apprehend the culprit even wrote his personal experience in his blog, but has since delete it. And my silly friend, Julie, joked that the morale of this story is dun quarrel at the MRT station. -_-"

Latest News is the culprit is a double degree scholar n will be charged with attempted murder

Botak Time Again

Time for Mickey to go botak again. ^_^ Look at the amount of fur! One full bag of it.

Knit a coat anyone?

Backtrack

It's been a hell of a week so far for me. Since last Friday, I have been slugging it out with work, trying to build and release the latest software image. The software image was supposed to be realise last Friday but it was only until now that I can get a proper version out. Every night I work till the wee hours. Last night was the worse, left the office at 10pm, reach home, wash up and had my dinner, continue from 1130pm till 4am this morning. Feel like a freaking zombie. It is so frustrating, nothing works. Either the compilation fails or something doesn't fit in. And when these are solved, the release have a big fat bug in it. And if that's not enough, I have to answer to people pressuring me on when will the release be out everyday. My mood is so bad and grouchy, I made Oscar looks like a friendly chap. Sorry sis if I have been rude to you the other day. *shame on me*

Feeling a bit relaxed now but still some more to go. Read some blogs and saw this article. Makes me think twice about my post the other day. As my wife sometimes tell me, marrying a geek has its advantages, right dear? ;)

Oscar's new replacement

Curse of A Software Engineer

I don't know when it started, but it seems that everytime some relatives or friends have some problems with their PC, my name is the first to pop up in their mind. Is this some kind of curse for being a software engineer? It is getting irritating sometimes that your mobile phone starts to become a service support hotline. "Hey, I like to buy a new computer, can help assemble one for me?", "Why my antivirus pop out this message? Is it my laptop kenna virus?" YES! You know who you are. I shall not name names. It is very tiring because I am not a know it all and secondly, it is very difficult to tell what's the problem when the computer is not in front of you. It's not like a few layman terms and *DING* I know what you are talking about and can provide you the solutions. Yes, I know a bit more on computers and software than others but that doesn't mean I am a guru. Sigh... I pity those service support hotline personnel. And the worse thing, whenever people ask me about my qualifications or job, their first reaction are "Oh you make/do computers ah?" Do computers? Woo... that covers a very large area man. And the funniest part is I don't bother to explain in details cause even if I do, their repy is "Make computers lah make computers lah, why explain until so cheem?" -_-" Well, enough rantings as I have to answer another call

Happy Birthday Darling

Dinner at Mushroom Pot: $94.95
Rent Car: $37
Cakes: $9
Tulip Bouquet: $18
Present - MP4 Player: $129
Seeing the blissful smile on my wife's face: Priceless...

Happy Birthday Darling ^_^

The Big Fat Green Sewage...

Comex is here again at the Expo and Starhub is coming out with an offer to give out Xbox 360 if you sign up for their MaxOnline. My advice is dun sign up with them. Starhub is a bunch of blood-suckers. I recently terminated my Starhub MaxOnline 4000 and switch to Singnet broadband. And guess what, Starhub call me up the next day and offer to reduce $10 from my monthly bill in order to retain my subscription. I hear about this at the IT forums and thought it may be just a rumor until now. Damn you Starhub! If you can afford to reduce the price, why can't they do it in the first place instead of offering us crappy gifts? IMO, we are being con into paying $10 extra. Anyway, I have termintate my MOL and switch over to the Singnet Broadband 3500 plan, which IMHO is cheaper and the performance is much better and faster compared to MOL. So much for the big fat green pipe ad. PUI!

Stay At Home During IMF Meeting

If you are a Singaporean, by this time, you should know that the IMF and World Bank annual meeting is being organized here at Suntec City from 10th - 20th Sept. I am really getting sick with news of the upcoming event everyday, bragging what have been done specially for the IMF delegates. And since all these delegates are treated as big f*@ks by our government, security is stepped up to the point of kiasu & kiasi. Police will have the rights to check on anyone on the spot. The kiasi spirit is so much so that a delivery man is stopped from entering the Conrad Continental Hotel at Suntec City because the guy has a criminal record and been jailed before. Yellow Ribbon Project my ass! Din you see the fine print, the Yellow Ribbon spirit does not apply when the government needs to bootlick the westerners and ensure their safety. Tsk… tsk… tsk…

Since this is the case, I advise everybody to stay away from Suntec City or even better the areas in the immediate vicinity. Wait sway sway, kanna check by the police. So ma lu… Also stay away from all ang mohs, just in case they turn out to be IMF people, police will ask you question on why you talk to them. In fact, unless necessary, just stay at home during this period of time and dun go anywhere.

Apple Pays Creative to Settle Lawsuit? Or Is It?

So the lawsuit between Apple and Creative is over. Apple will pay Creative $100 million to settle the dispute over patented technology, own by Creative, and used in iPod. Although on the surface it shows that Creative has won, if you read the finer details, Apple is the real winner. $100 million is considered peanuts :p to Apple. The amount they earned from their iPods and iMacs are more than enough to cover this cost. In addition, Apple is allowed to recoup costs if Creative licensed the patent to others. In other words, whoever Creative sue next for patent infringement, part of the compensation they get will have to go to Apple. Lastly, Creative is allowed to make products under Apple's "Made for iPod" program. For your info, the iPod's dock connector is an Apple proprietary and to obtain the rights to use it, you must sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and "Made for iPod" agreement with Apple, which Apple is then entitled 10% of wholesome pricing for products with the "Made for iPod" logo. Seems like Creative is getting the shorter end of the deal if you ask me.

If it is such a lu gi (pronounce as Loo Gi - meaning unfair, losing) deal, why do Creative still agreed to it, you may ask? IMO, one reason for the settlement is Microsoft's entry into the portable media player market with Zune. Touted by MS as THE iPod killer, Creative will not like the idea of fighting whatever remaining market with another big player. Rather than fighting among themselves, why not work together to face the new common enemy? Plus the US is a huge market, Creative needs that market to improve on its dwelling business cause by the war on Apple's iPod. Imagine selling one Creative made iPod accessories for every iPod sold. As for Apple, they can just sit back, collect their royalties and licensing fees, while Creative do all the dirty works on suing everyone and anyone who have infringe their patent.

In conclusion, what have we learnt from all this? If you can't win them, sue them. And if you still can't win, join them, or so you thought?

You've been warned

The Ministry of Health today have release a report that the average hospital bills are still affordable to us. Well... you heard it first here. All these means that if it is still affordable, the hospital can go ahead and increase the medical cost. I won't be surprised to see news of hospital raising medical cost for this coming few weeks.

Early Birds Gets the Worm

For this case, it's early shoppers gets the fresh items. :p Picture taken with my K750i outside Giant Hypermart @ .IMM on Sunday morning slightly before 9am.

Sadako's New Job?

Sadako decided to crawl out of advertisement board instead of the TV? Jesseca Liu looks more like a ghost than human in this ad. Her pose looks like the classic female ghost combing long hair. Eerie especially during the Chinese 7th Month Hungry Ghost Festival.

A Whole New Way Of Using Your iPod

Post by MrBrown: I have seen a lot of strange and weird accessories made for the ipod. But this takes it to a whole new level. A vibrator powered by the iPod. Oh dear... -_-"

Check out the product home page - OhMiBod. I like the cheeky quote, "a whole new meaning of plug n play"

Mickey New Shoes

After the episode when our little prince's paws were bitten by ants during his walk, Angie decided to get his highness a pair of doggy shoes. So off we went to the pet shop at Punggol Plaza last Sunday to look for a suitable pair set (Mind you, dogs have 4 legs not 2 :P). While Angie is pondering which design to take (It's just a set of shoes *rolleyes*), I explore the shop and some interesting wardrobe n accessories for our K9 companions. Dog life jackets! Hmm... maybe Mickey need one of this after his previous swimming nightmare. Hehehe. Also notice this poster of a dog pouch/carrier, which I saw during our Taiwan trip. Check out the product's website.

Anyway, we finally got the shoes and went home to let his majesty try them on amid a lot of struggles from the dog. 13 years walking barefooted and suddenly the poor guy have to learn to walk with shoes. Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks. LOL. Turns out the shoes are too big and too loose for the spoilt brat. He just stand still, afraid to move. And when he finally made his first steps, he got the entire family rolling on the floor laughing. Our little furry one is totally humilated.



Plan A fails, what to do? It so happens that we ran into our neighbour tonight, whose Shih-Tzu wears shoes during walks. The kind neighbour recommend us hers and is willing to lend us a brand new set for Mickey to try. Thus, another round of humilation awaits for poor Mickey. At least this time, he looks more comfortable. In the end, we decided to buy the set from our neighbour.

Ooo... I duno my dog can do breakdance. :P

Beware when buying thumbdrives in China

Saw this article on an gaming website. Damn, the chinese in Mainland China are really horrible.

Next Toto Draw 1st Prize - $5.5 Million

Haha, seems like my cursing prayers works very effectively. Realised on Thurs that the Toto first prize that evening is $2.8 million. Afraid that it may be too late for me to buy any tickets, I pray that nobody wins it so it can be snowballed to Monday. And it works! Given the second chance, must whack BIG.

Results out. Sigh... spent so much and all I won is $20, with half of belonging to my friend. Why I am not among the 8 persons? :(

A Visit to the Vet

Brought Mickey to the Vet on Monday evening for his routine jab to control his recurring skin problem. The little boy is so pamper. Keeps whining on the vet table after his jab while we are discussing his condition with the vet. Like a spoilt child, pestering the owners to carry him n leave since the jab is over. Sigh...

WHAT THE HECK?!! Another raise?

This is going too far. First raises in cab fares and electricity bills then comes public transport request to increase fares, now news just reported that Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) is increasing too. WTF! Isn't all this comes too coincident, immediately a few months after the General Elections? And the reason given by our dear Land Transport Authority (LTA)? Need to maintain optimal speed on expressways. I wan to ask LTA, who the freaking hell caused this in the first place? LTA lower the COE prices over the past few months to such an extent that it is quite affordable to own a car. So everybody jumps in, which results in the traffic congestion everywhere. And now who is gonna pay for LTA mistake? US!. Even though I don't own a car, such measure really pisses me off. Is this the so called first world government that our government keeps boasting about? Congrats to all those 66% of the population who voted for the ruling party. You got your wish of having a “higher standard of living”

Updated: Saw new definitions on net
E.R.P (Everyday Rob People)
L.T.A (Lee Takes All)

Starcraft Ghost

Always trust Blizzard to come out with a kick ass game and trailer for it, Starcraft Ghost. Too bad the game got shelf/back to development. But I must say, this is one hell of trailer. More like one for the movies than for a game.

A Mid-Life Crisis?

Contemplating to resign from my current job these few days. Really tired of what I am doing here. I hate the job scope. I seem to have entered the stage where I have lost all drive in work. I totally have no idea what should I do with my career. If I leave this place, where should I go, what should I look out for; I have totally no fucking idea. Just talk 2 my U classmate, moongster. He is also facing the same situation as I do. His job scope is quite similar to mine. Surprisingly many of his friends also have the same thinking as we do. We start to wonder should we change job/industry and what should we do from then on. Is this what they call a mid-life crisis? But isn't that a bit too early? This tiger needs a rest....

P.S. Thanks to Moongster, this is known as Quarter-Life Crisis

Here's a good explanation of quarter life crisis and how to overcome it. Link

Dreamt of mum last night. It is my first time that she appears in my dream since she pass away. In it, she looks like she is folding clothes, looking very gentle and at peace. Sadly I can't remember much of the dream after I woke up though it seems to last very long. I am happy to see her but sad that it had to end when the morning breaks. Still missing her...

I am too old for this....

Woow... it's been a crazy and hectic week for me. Got a huge problem on my project's prototype build 3 run at the factory. Causes so much panic around. Finally some peace n I pop over to YouTube for some R n R and I saw this video of the next generation of gameplay by Valve, the makers of Half-Life 2. OMG! And I tot using the gravity gun in Half-Life 2 is tough for me and now this... Look at the unlimited crazy/creative (choose one) ways to use this portal gun. Man... I think I am too old n slow for this shit. But kudos to the genius at Valve for coming out with such a brillant idea for this. The programming to get this to work must be a nightmare.


Also found this cool music video made entirely using the Half-Life 2 gaming environment. These guys are good...

Sunday Breakfast with Dad

Went out on Sunday morning with Dad and my aunt to the newly opened Chinatown Complex Temp Market and Food Complex to have breakfast. as the old complex is closed for upgrading, all the shops and the stalls selling tasty and cheap food are shifted to the nearby Outram area. We supposed to have porriage but the stall have not started business till Monday. So we end up having noodles.

Dad had raw fish noodles, something that I saw for the first time. After the meal, we walk around where Dad met alot of his Chinatown friends. Feel like accompanying an Minister of Parliament around on election day. :p All in all we have an enjoyable time, even my grouchy aunt also flash a smile.

My aunt enjoying herself

Juventus Relegated! :(

Juventus have been found guilty of corruption and been demoted to the Italy football second division and start next season with a 30-point deficit, as well as being stripped of the league titles they won in the past two seasons. Why do they have to go do all these bribing and match-fixing when they have such a wonderful squad that can win the league without any help? Now, all the top players in the team will leave the team and with the 30 points deduction, it signals that the club will stay at least 2 seasons in the lower league.

And with AC Milan also banned from playing European football next season, Chelsea will have a bigger chance of winning the Champions League as they are hardly any challengers to them now with the lost of the Italians powerhouses. Something I wish won't happen. Especially for a club that bought its way to success.

Vitagen: Good for Breast?

Haha, just when I am about to write an entry on the latest Vitagen ad featuring Felicia Chin, Eternity on a Rock, did it ahead of me. The latest ad gave the similar impression as the one did by HL Milk. The Vitagen ad definitely looks like those breast enhancement advertisment you see in the papers. ^_^

PC Upgrading Blues

Holly cow. From the way the PC market is heading, if I am gonna upgrade my PC, it won't be called an upgrade. More like buying a new PC. Things are moving so fast that my PC is becoming obsolete at the blink of an eye. The "IN" thing now is dual cores CPU. Hence instead of the one CPU per chip, there are 2 running concurrently in the same chip, greatly increasing speed and performance. And rumors has it, it is moving towards "Quad" core (4 CPUs per chip) in the next few years. Geezz...

I tell you har, hardware makers are all bitches. Every time there is something new, they change all the various CPU connections and standards such that a simple upgrade will end up changing the entire PC. Take my case, if I want to upgrade my PC to a Dual-Core CPU, I will need to upgrade the motherboard as well because the new CPU is not compatible with my current motherboard. Next, the new dual-core CPU and motherboard uses DDR2 memories while mine uses DDR. Bye-bye DDR RAM. Finally, my current graphic card interface is AGP while the new motherboard interface for graphic card is PCI-E. There goes my graphic card. In the end, I need to spend almost $1.5k just to upgrade to a Dual-Core CPU. Mind you this is only for a low-end upgrade, and let's not go to the high-end ones. And that's not all, if my current power supply is not powerful enough to support all the new hardware; I need to get a new one too. Sometimes I wonder where the f@*k those gurus in the IT forums got their cash to constantly upgrade to the high-end stuff. Sell backside? Anyway my conclusion is.... dun upgrade unless u r flirty rich. Got to start saving...

So much for upgrading my rig to play the latest games. :(

Revision of Taxi Fares. Does it really help the cabbies?

It's very difficult to hail a cab at my place in Punggol especially during the morning rush hour from 8am - 9am. Unless you call a cab, flagging down an empty cab is very difficult. Most of the cabs coming in have "On-Call" sign. But this have changed ever since the taxi fare hike on Monday, I have counted more than 9 empty cabs roaming around my area this morning around 9am and only one cab with On-Call sign. The hike in fare price is really taking a toll on the cab drivers. People are not willing to take cab much less calling for one. The cab drivers are so desperate that an elderly lady is trying to cross the road and a cab immediately drove up to her thinking that she is trying to flag one.

Really sympathize with cabbies. Is this the so called benefits cab drivers will have from the fare hike as explained by the cab companies? Looks like it is doing more harm. But on a second note, I guess this is only temporary. Singaporeans are quite fan jian. Once they got used to the change, they will take the cabs again and everything will goes back to the way it was before. That is until the next fare hike...

I Am Singaporean

Well, in line with Mr Brown's call to record our "I Am Singaporean" speech for the upcoming National Day, I also did mine. In support for Mr Brown, I change the color of the font to... yes... brown :D

I am tiger4, born and raised in Singapore.
I can speak good singlish, with all the lah, leh and loh
I believe cursing relieve stress and should be in dialect and angmoh

I am married for more than 2 years, planning to have a child
I get around with my "kar" although hoping to own the 4-wheels one

I like playing computer games but hardly have time or money these days
I watch pirated videos cause weekend movie tickets are not cheap

I like to watch football except the S-League as it sucks
And no, I din subscribe to World Cup Cable packages, Thank You SCTV and CCTV!

I read Mr Brown's blog, cause his views reflect the people's thoughts.
Unlike the lies n the crap, the papers and the news report.

I hate the start of the month, cause the salary I just received will be gone.
I am kiasu, but at least I give way for people alighting bus and mrt

I support the Worker's Party, even though they din contest my constituency.
I dun believe you dun need CEOs, PhDs or army generals as good leaders, just people who are willing to serve the public with heart, passion and soul.

I love my country though I don't hang my flag.
I love my country though I dislike the system.
I am tiger4, my name is Daryl Ng Wai Leong and I am a Singaporean
So say we all.
so say we all.

Technorati Tags: iamsingaporean

Cops looking into gathering in support of mr brown

How come I din receive the sms? I also want to join in the support leh. :(

News report here

World Cup Over

Well the World Cup is finally over. Not a very classic final but I still feel Italy deserve the victory. The current topic now is Zidane's headbutt. Everywhere I surf on the internet, it have to be mentioned. There is a funny explaination on why Zidane do that and a poll on what did Materazzi said. There's even a online game.

For me the one below takes the cake - Zidane Street Fighter.


07/12/2006: Another updated one courtesy of Gameaxis. But I still prefer the above one. :p

On a side note, dear, sorry I neglected you during this period. But I'M BACK! ^_^

Things that I Don't Like
1. Woken from my sleep, especially in the morning of an off day.
2. PC crash and how to reinstall
3. No money in my wallet
4. Kiasu people boarding MRT/bus
5. Crowded and noisy places.
6. Having a running nose
7. Sun on my face

Things that I like
1. Sleeping (lagy best on rainy days)
2. Weekends and off days
3. Money in my wallet
4. Driving on a quiet expressway
5. Silence of the night
6. Gaming without the disturbance.
7. Wind on my face

Change in Grading Standard?

Seems like after the General Elections, there is a new grading standard. 66% is considered very good. ^_^. As it is shown in this cheeky shampoo ad.

Wah, 66% leh. Must be very good :p

So Much For Freedom Of Speech

Mr Brown just announce that TODAY has suspended his column. Bloody TODAY, so damn timid. They should have anticipate this will happen when they approved Mr Brown's article to be published. Just one government letter and they hang Mr Brown out to dry. Damn gutless papers, so much for freedom of press and speech. Nevermind, I never really bought TODAY to read anyway. Mr Brown does not need that teeny weeny column space. His blog is his real home and he can continue to write what he wants there.

The phrase below was copied a long time ago in an IT forum. It is posted by a forumer, who use it to describe the mindless devotion some people have to either Intel or AMD and the fierce argument they exihibit defending of their respective camps. I find it quite fitting to what we see so far from this episode.

"Truth ran away a long time ago and didn't leave a forwarding address. There are two sides. For and against. Us Vs. Them. Truth? There is only one truth: Us is right; Them is not only wrong, but evil. Attack with anything and everything that can be used against Them; ignore anything and everything that can be used against Us." by Sin on the ceased Superpet Forums

Mr Brown Hits Back!

Mr Brown replies to government critism of him with this podcast

Well Said. Well Done!

"I AM A SINGAPOREAN! SO SAID WE ALL!"

Download the podcast here

P.S. Well, well, well... seems like this story is spreading around the Singapore blog scene like wild fire with support for Mr Brown coming in non-stop. Some bloggers even took the time to make a funny video of it.
Mr Miyagi's Blog
Tommorrow

And History Repeats Itself Again

Sigh... once again the familiar cycle of increasing the cost of living in Singapore after the General Elections has started. News of raising cost coming in fast and furious. After the announcement of the raise in electricity charges comes the news of plans to revise bus and MRT fares and taxi fare hikes. I wonder how those silly PAP supporters, waving PAP flags and cheering the MPs, feel now? Is this the big thank you for all those support you gave?

Well last Friday, our local celebrity blogger, Mr Brown, posted an article in his column in TODAY newspaper. In the article, he jokingly expresses his views on the latest raises. Sadly, the Ministry for Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) does not have the same sense of humour, and releases a press release on Monday to critise Mr Brown for his views and calling him "a 'partisan player' in politics". What does this show? Our government cannot take a little feedback and sarcasm. Or Mr Brown has hit a weak spot... ;) Judging from the comments received on Mr Brown's blog, making people are quite unhappy with the government heavy-arm method

P.S. If you read the MICA reply, the so called purpose of progress package suddenly have changed from "a distribution this year to share part of our surplus with Singaporeans" to money given to help you cover the raising cost. How fitting...

A Lousy Start to the Day

I am so pissed today. The other day, an ex-colleague, Krishna, from my previous company, GES, called to ask me on something they have problem on. He has sent me an email on his problem. I find it quite strange, it's been more than a year since I have left that company already. They can still call me, asking me how to do this and that. How came I remember that especially since I have not been working on it all these while? But I still gave them some suggestions and apologise if it doesn't work out as I can't really recall it after such a long time. Guess what?! Today, an email reply from Krishna and in his own words "At least would you please give any info about adding check sum to bootloader?". I thought WTH! That prick is accusing me of withholding information? I am not working there anymore and is not obliged to support them on anything. What I did is only based on goodwill and this is what I get. Grrr.....

Star Wars Band.

Found this video on YouTube of Gnarls Barkley singing "Crazy" at the recent MTV Movie Awards. Everyone is dressed as a famous Star Wars character. Love those guitar playing stormtroopers.



I like to see such acts, whereby movie characters are potrayed as a pop band. Here's another one based on Final Fantasy: Spirit Within characters.

Lessons Learnt From World Cup

Once again, the World Cup has taught us some valuable lessons.

1. It is OK to Cheat.
There are so many divings and play acting to win penalties and get opponents yellow or red carded. And these cheaters often are unpunished. The most famous is the Italian penalty unfairly awarded against the Australians. It is that the Italian player, Grosso, purposely tripped himself over the lying Australian playerto win a penalty. Worse still is the blind referee believes it is a foul and awarded the penalty. Even though the whole world claims Grosso cheated from the video replay, he is not punished. Not even a fine.

2. Life is Not Fair.
Good performance is not equal to progress through the World Cup. Just ask Australia, Mexico, Ghana, Czech and Ivory Coast. They are out of the World Cup even though they play better football than the others. Soon Germany or Argentina, facing each other in the quarters, will join them. All lousy teams like England and Italy can go through easily performing badly or even through cheating.

Oh may I remind you, the best team does not always win the World Cup. I hope I dun see England lifting the Cup comes 9th July. :S

3. Lady Luck Have a Bad Taste.
Luck does not like to bless the good people. England, despite playing like shit, still can progress to the quarter-finals. Their group is easy, last 16's opponent, Ecuador, easy and can't score. Now their quarter-finals oppoenent, Portugal is below strength due to suspensions and injuries.

Having a bad flu for the whole of last week. Thought I have recovered this morning, but once I step into the office, it came back again. maybe i developing some office withdrawal syndrome. :p Think I really have to pay the doctor a visit. Lately, I am getting frustrated and upset with everything. I will get very irritated when things doesn't go my way or to my liking. It is like the whole world owns me something. Sometimes, I wish I have a punching bag to vent all my anger.

Duno why I am feeling this way, maybe it is due to the frustration I am facing at my workplace. It's been 6 months since I am here but I still dun feel like I am doing anything productive. Everyday it is testing, reporting test failure, follow up on these failures, occasional building of software images. For some, this is life to them cos this is so relaxing and no brains cells are hurt. For my case, I dun feel any sense of accomplishment. To me, this is a die-pan job. Sigh... should have gone to Lawton & Yeo. Perhaps it's time to update my resume. But firstly, must get this sickening flu bug off my nose.

England: The New Italy?

Saw the World Cup match between England and Ecuador last night. Man, I thought I was watching Italy playing. I have never been an England supporter cos I hated their boasting and hyping everything. Was hoping Ecuador will give them a tight slap. But England's performance last night is a total disgrace. 4-5-1 formation against Ecuador?!! What was Sven-Goran Eriksson thinking?!! Wow... Ecuador must be damn good cos England have to play with a 5 man midfield to stop them. As for the game itself, England play without any real sting in their attack. They just stroke the ball around as if it is a training session and were lucky not be a goal down when Ecuador's Carlos Tenorio had his shot hits the bar. And just as I predicted, England scored through a set-piece from a David Beckham's free kick. It is the only thing they know. After tat, they hid back into their hole (An Italian's specialty). The most disgraceful thing is seeing English players play the time wasting tactics near the end of the game (Another Italian's specialty) where they have not one but two players booked for it. Didn’t the English consider such tactics as an ungentlemanly behaviour last time?

Another thing I like to complain is what’s Sven relationship to Owen Hargreaves? He is a midfielder! Why name him as right-back when Jamie Carragher is a better option. And every time, there is a substitution; it is always Own Hargreaves, even when he have better players on the bench. Anyway, the competition is not always won by the best team. Maybe after seeing the way Greece won Euro04, Sven tries to do the same for the World Cup by playing defensive tactics, boring their opponents to death. After all he was coaching in Italy before he became England Manager...

P.S. Seems like all the good attacking teams are dropping like flies. Quite a waste that teams like Czech, Holland and Mexico have to go out so early. Hope Argentina, Brazil and Germany goes all the way

Serenity (宁静)

Woke up at 6am this morning, took some photos of the serenity around the streets.

Another "Money Spinning" Show?

Last night Channel 8 shows the first episode of 全民创意争霸赛 (It's Showtime). It is sort like a direct copy of the Japanese version of 超级变变变, where contestants create all kinds of objects using their bodies, props and most importantly their creativity. Back to It's Showtime, it has the same concept. Contestants are made up of teams from various schools in Singapore. The funny thing since this is a creativity contest, why does we still need to have a viewers voting system as one of the judging criteria? Isn't this silly? Yes even though the overall scores is evenly divided between viewers votes and judges marks, both my wife and I still feel that viewers voting have no place in such competitions. As I have pointed out in one of my earlier post, my reasons being as long as you have a huge support (for this case, big schools), you will get thru the competition even though your performance sucks. Which brings us the question: What is the logic behind MediaCorp decision to add viewers votes in this kind of contest? Well.... see my post title...

P.S. Co-host Kym Ng's dress last night looks really horrible. It's like.... huh???

哗啦啦... 下雨了...

A heavy downpour occur today morning. So heavy that the blocks of flats facing us seems to be disappearing behind a curtain of rain. Scary sia... We even thought of calling a call to go to work even though my wife's workplace is just across the street. Luckily the rain subside around 8.45am when my dear and I are about to leave for work, else we will be drenched no matter how big an umbrella we have. Whew....

Weekends Outings

Saturday: ChongQing Hotpot & Ah Chew Desserts

My sisters and I brought my father out for dinner to celebrate Father's Day. We went down to Beach Road to have 重庆老火锅 (ChongQing Hotpot) to try the 麻辣火锅. It is a buffet style steamboat where the highlight is the super spicy hotpot. I have tried 麻辣火锅 at The Magic Of Chong Qing Hot Pot at Tanglin Shopping Centre, which isn't very spicy, but this one takes the cake. One tiny sip and my tongue is on fire and numb. Wooo... take about breathing out fire.

After dinner, I recommend we go try Ah Chew Dessert just along Liang Seah Street. The shop is famous for its Cantonese Desserts. Being Cantonese, this is something we won't reject. The place is packed full but we are lucky enough to get a table (free sitting by the way). As we were there quite late, most of the good stuff are sold out among them 蛋花马蹄露 (Water chestnut paste with egg). Mum used to make this for us and it is one of my favourite. I still remember she learn to cook this dessert from 方太, a Hong Kong TV Chef. The cold 鲜奶钝蛋 (Fresh Milk Steamed Egg) is a recommeded dessert for me. Other than these two, the hot sesame paste, peanut paste and almond paste also looks and smells very nice to me. Will definitely come back with my wife some other day to fulfill my wish of eating 马蹄露.

Ah Chew's Menu. Courtesy of food, snaps & slurps!

Sunday: Pet Movers
My wife and I, together with my in-laws brought Mickey to Pet Movers. It is a pet farm, which have an open field where dogs can run around freely and enjoy the companies of other dogs, sniffing each other's backside :p. But do be careful when walking around the open field as the dogs have planted several "land mines" around. Shame on those owners who don't remove them. As for Mickey, he is so scared there, afraid to mingle with other dogs. They also have a wading pool there for dogs to swim in. Our timid dog is so horrified when we place him into the pool that he struggle desperately to get out of it. Click here to see more photos.

Tied Down By Cables?

My PC table is starting to get messy again. I remember I just tidied it up last weekend. I realise that I have this big bag of cables and accessories for every electonic gadget I own. Every gadget has its own USB data cable and charger. The frustrating thing is all gadget's USB data cable uses their type of USB connector to the gadget. So you end up with one cable for your digital camera, another for your Ipod, another for your videocam and the list goes on... And to make matters worse, there are the composite cables for your PC speakers, TV, DVD players and different chargers for each gadget. Why can't the manufacturers just agree on a common standard for the damn USB data cable and chargers?

Cable Spaghetti

How well do you know your neighbour?

Have you ever notice we hardly knew our neighbours nowadays? I remember my parents telling last time when they were staying in Kampung or Chinatown area, everybody living in the same street knew each other, helping each other out. Even during my younger years staying in Redhill, my family is on very good terms with our neighbours. So good that even after we shifted away for more than 6 years, they still come to attend my mother’s funeral when they saw the news of my mother’s accident in the papers. I still vivid memories of my childhood where I used to play with my neighbours’ children, hanging around the corridors and void decks. But those days are gone now. People have drifted further and further away from each other. Especially in those new estates area, everybody just closed their door, shutting themselves in. We hardly see our neighbours let alone talk to them. There are still those occasional encounters at the doorways and lifts, but all we give is just a simple smile and ‘hello’. The funniest thing is my neighbours are such total strangers to me that sometimes I don’t even recognise them when we run into each other outside.

The other day, my colleague is talking about the games we play when we are young. I realise that our children now don’t go out and play with our neighbours’ children. They sat at home with their Playstations and computers, serving the net, chatting with friends on the IRC. Heck, their best friends might not even be staying in our neighbourhood but their classmates at school or someone they met in some internet forums or chat rooms. Walking around our HDB flats, the atmosphere is like a ghost town. Neighbours are supposed to be our closest friends. Yet we have cut off ourselves that we have become total strangers.

My New Sony Ericsson K750i :)

My wife saw my earlier post and got me the Sony Ericsson K750i. Woohooo... so happy. It's been a long wait to get my hands on this baby. What I like about this phone is the 2 megapixel camera. Now I can take sharp and clear photos wherever I go. Thank you darling :)

My new phone :D

A photo taken with the phone

Took a video of Mickey getting his breakfast using my new videocam and doing some tricks in the process. This dog will do anything for food...

Must read for guys who have girlfriend n wife.

Found this funny article by a football critic @ Soccernet about women and watching soccer.

"When you get a text from your loved one saying something like 'Love You' or some other pithy comment, the proper response is, apparently, to text back straight away 'Love You Too' and, for best practice, add something equally as meaningful and romantic. Failure to do this will result in 'bad points' being awarded against you for which the eventual sentence will be swift, unexpected and almost certainly painful."

Mickey had a hair cut yesterday. This is how he looks before I go to work and when i got home after work, wah lah! All bald... Totally different dog. But still a greedy one ^_^ Both photos taken of him in the kitchen spying for food.

Before
After

Screw You Starfug!

Dug up my TV antenna the other day and connect to my room TV. Managed to tune to the Indonesia channel SCTV , which broadcast the World Cup for free! A big hurray for people who like me, who prefer to stay at home to watch the World Cup than goes to McDonald's. And a big FU! to Starhub, who charges us to subscribe to their "special" World Cup package. So special that according to a forum, the commentary sucks BIG TIME! WHAT! No Martin Tyler!. Plus no pre-match formation preview, no half-time analysis! Pay $10-$15 for this type of lousy broadcast? NO WAY! Now I still can watch the World Cup Live. Although there's still no Martin Tyler :(, at least the commentaries are more professional and doesn't call Paraguay Columbia -_-"

"But there never seems to be enough time,
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them..." From the song, Time in A Bottle.

Sigh... the weekend zoom pass again. So fast that there isn’t much time for me to do any personal things. Life is getting more and more robotic. I have a long list of things to do and yet I just can’t seems to find the time to do them. Nowadays I hardly play any PC games. I dun even watch the World Cup, just did a quick check on the results every morning. Actually it is also because I din subscribed to Starhub World Cup Pay-Per-View. Wait till I setup my TV antenna to watch it on RTM1/2 or SCTV. Argh.. another item on my TO-DO list.

I know it’s all about planning your time and prioritizing your tasks. But either my planning sucks or shit always happens to me. Whatever I plan, it always does work out well. Can’t imagine what life will be like if I were to have kids. Sometimes, you really have to compromise between family, work and personal life. Sadly for me, personal time is always the one who have to sacrifice.

Rants For the Week

Have a couple of rants to make over the past week. Written them down long ago but can't quite find the time to post them.

Money CAN buy success…
Ever since Chelsea football club has been bought over by the super wealthy Russian Oil tycoon, Roman Abramovich, money is the least of their worries. These days they simply go out and buy whoever they want at any cost. Take for this coming season; they have acquired the services of Michael Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko plus the young talents like Salomon Kalou and Jon Obi Mikel to add to their already overly talented squad. They can just win everything easily without breaking a sweat. And to think that Jose Mourinho still has the nerve to say that winning the English Premier League is tough. Hell, with the kind of squad available, they can win the European Champions League even with an idiot as their manager. They are luring the best players from other clubs even though the club itself is not willing to let the player go. Using cash and the promise of success with the squad they have, which player will not be tempted to join them? And the way they over paid to get the players they want is causing everybody to overpriced their players. They deserve no respect from me. All their success is bought. There is no pride in this kind of success. No matter how much Chelsea will try, they will not gain the same support as Liverpool, Arsenal or even Man U has. Oh… I pray that they never win the Champions League.

Singapore Idols - Are they really that popular?
Lately, there is a string of idols show on TV one coming after the other. Immediately after Project Superstar comes Campus Superstar follow by Superbands with the latest being the Singapore Idol Season 2. Other than the winning contestant, I believe the biggest winner in all these shows must be the phone companies and the Mediacorp. Charging 50 cents for every SMS or phone calls made, they must be laughing all the way to the bank from the amount of votes being cast for each show. Imagining if every idol competition adopts a charity organization? Guess that organization won’t have problems raising funds for the next few years. ;) From the experience, we also see how immature Singaporean youth can be, wasting so much money and effort on star chasing someone, whom you may probably forgotten by this time next year (Taufik / Sylvester Sim anyone?).

Another provoking thought is the contestants’ fate in the competition is determined by the number of votes they received even though a large number of the votes may come from a small group of people. Is it really a fair way in determining the contestant’s popularity? Why not make it such a way that all SMS/calls from the same number are counted as 1 vote and let the judges’ marks have a higher influence in the final score. Won’t this be a fairer result and give every contestant a better judgment?

Superman or Super Dork?

With the latest installment of Superman movies, Superman Returns, coming to our movie screen. I am still unable to understand one thing… How the hell did no one can identify Superman from Clarke Kent?!!! Are they blind?!!! A pair of glasses and a change of hair style. VIOLA... No more Superman. Must be the red underwear. Everybody must be ogling at those pair of bright red underwear when Superman appears cos no one in their right frame of mind will wear something so striking on the outside.

OMG! They are indeed two totally different persons!

My Damage At the PC Show

Strike off another item from my list of desires. Bought myself a cheap digital videocam at the recently concluded PC Show. It is a Digilife DDV-C330 DV Camcorder. It is a mini-camcorder that is also a digital camera, mp3 player and voice recorder. Compact and comes with a 3.2 Mega Pixel Sensor and 6x digital zoom. Quite good video n picture quality under good lighting. Almost got con at buying it at $288. Luckily i walk around n saw it selling @ $189 at another booth. Next item on the list, Sony Ericsson K750i. My M1 contract is now eligible for phone upgrade. With my current K500i still having a trade in value of $100, signing a new contract n getting the phone will oni cost me $98. Tempting... ^_^

Live World Cup 2006 Matches at McDonald's

Good news to all. For those who wanted to watch WC2006 matches but do not want to be backmailed by Starhub into subscribing their pay-per-view (like me) or hang around the hot n stuffy coffee shops at your block, here's another alternative... McDonald's Singapore will be broadcasting live matches of the World Cup at their 24-hours outlets. On their giant plasma TV screens! Hurray!!! Now you can enjoy WC2006 matches with aircon n fast food all under one roof. Find the nearest 24-hour McD to your place here ;)

How Nerdy are you?

Found a How Nerdy Are You Quiz? at Seck Tien's blog. My score: Low Ranking Nerd. Definitely a nerd but low on the totem pole of nerds

Playing around :p

Of Wooden Heels and Pepper Lunch

Went down to Orchard road last Saturday for a checkup. As it is the Great Singapore Sale period, it make perfect sense that my wife will not resist the urge to shop a while. When browsing through the ladies' shoes department, I notice that the heels of the high-heel shoes are made of wood. Kinda makes me think while we are educating the need to save the rainforest by recycling paper, here we are fashioning wood to make the thousands and thousands of ladies shoes. There are so many designs and for each design, there are so many sizes! Where do they get all these wood? There's no sign that says these woods are recycled material. I shudder to think of what will happen to those shoes are not sold and are out of fashion... We can be so cruel to the environment just for the sake of looking beautiful in our eyes. We kill animals just for their skins and furs, and we cut down trees to make high-heel shoes that are hurting for the feet. And this does not apply only to the fashion world, as we seek for more riches, we are taking more than what we need from our fragile planet. It is a matter of time before we drain out our planet's resources or the planet collapses to destroy us. The price for development....

Sad issues aside. we went to Pepper Lunch, a Japanese fast-food steak restaurant, at basement of Takashimaya for lunch. We ordered a beef pepper rich set which cost $8.80 with a bowl of miso soup. The dish consist of fragrant rice with corn on top served with raw sliced beef, all on top of a hot plate. oh... all the dish here are heavily sprinkle with pepper, hence the name of the restaurant. We need to mix the dish up with a choice of adding either honey brown sauce or garlic soy sauce to further enhance the flavour. We added honey brown sauce and the rice taste like baked rice. The waiter is quite friendly and teaches customers how to cook the dish. Pardon the photo as it is taken with my mobile phone. :p

Some links on the restaurant
can.com.sg
Channel NewsAsia

Have problem parking?

Found this fun game post by Peugot at Parking Idiots in Singapore. A great training tool for those attending driving lessons and those having problems parking correctly. Hehehe

Turning the Ouch... to Ooo...

Hoho, surprise, surprise. OTO changed my chair's delivery time to yesterday's evening which came as a pleasant surprise for us. So we get to enjoy our new massage chair 1 day ahead of time (we made some changes for it to be delivered today). Never thought in our life that we can afford a massage chair. I am not a sucker for massage but watching my wife relaxing herself on the chair with the sound effects of "Ooo... Ahh..." makes me feel that it is money well-spent. :D

Haha finally moved my lazy butt and upload all my taipei trip photos to Yahoo Photos.

Links are provided below:
My Taipei Trip Series 1
My Taipei Trip Series 2

My Rig's New Speakers ^_^

I finally got the speaker that I always wanted, the Creative I-Trigue 3400, in the color that I like. Got it install last Sunday and the two new babies look fantastic and match perfectly with my rig’s black theme. Even my wife says the speakers look very nice. :) However, when I test the audio quality, I realize that it is not as good as my old Yamaha speakers. For someone who likes to have a heavy bass, the bass output from the I-Trigue is quite disappointing. I wonder is it me or the song I use has a weak bass (How strong the bass can be playing a sentimental song? :p) Will do more testing when the time permits. Check out the speakers. Yah... I know my table is messy

Hehe... The new speakers free up more space on the desk to throw my things around

OTO Cyber-Lux

My wife and I have been thinking of getting a massage chair. One reason is to help relax the tired muscles of my wife as well as relief the aches of my in-laws. Another is to let me rest my hands on massaging my wife aching shoulders all this time :p. So we went down to Hougang Mall to take a look as both Osim and OTO have retail outlets there. Both companies have introduce a low-end massage chairs lately and we can’t decide which one to get. Hence we got my in-laws down to test them out as they will be using the chair too. Both offering by Osim and OTO have their pros and cons, the Osim being that it is covered by cloth n can get dirty easily while the OTO is made of leather. Problem is the one from OTO does not have any massager for the claves which the Osim does. In the end, my mother-in-law tried a higher end model, OTO Cyber-Lux and she loved it so much. The rest of us tried it too and found it to meet our needs and requirements. Hence after much decision, we decide to get the OTO Cyber-Lux. Now our newly bought massage chair will be arriving this coming Saturday and the whole family is very excited especially my wife. She even dreamt about it during her afternoon nap. Hoho, I can foresee she will be stuck in that chair once it is delivered.

Our new chair is black in color

天下无不散之宴席

Sigh.... found news that my work place gang leader has resigned. Although I feel quite sad cause we really get aloong quite well, I oso happy for her. Work at the new workplace is quite hectic, can see she is overwhelm by the amount of workload thrown to her. In addition, our company have a lot of rules, processes and procedures to follow. Very rigid in times. "Must do things like this, must follow this method...". MNC are like tat, can't be help. She told me she feel guilty as she left us in times when the project have started to pick up pace. Actually I dun blame her at all. Why force yourself to stuck in a work place, making yourself unhappy? For me, a happy working environment is more important than anything else. Without it, you won't feel motivated to do your best in your work. Furthermore, everyday going to work is a drag. Like a phrase I heard, "Happiness is when your vocation becomes vacation". :)

Gosh... I am so dead beat today. Suppose to post this thoughts last night, but came home had my dinner n took a nap. Next time I knew, it's already almost 12 midnight. So here I am, unable to sleep, waiting for the live telecast of the UEFA Champions League final, posting this.

Our work project is running out of time. Hence to save some time, I have to be at the production line at 6.30am, which is the time the line starts, to do a quick programming of the 2nd prototype units to ensure everything is working fine. Hence I have to wake up at 5am to get to office. I left my place at 6am with the sky still dark and the streets quiet. It reminds me my secondary school n poly days when I woke up early in the morning to be in school as early as possible. I really like this type of atmosphere. I like the dark, the silence, the serenity. That's why I like to stay up late if possible. Last time when I was staying with my family in Jurong, I will go downstairs in the middle of the time to the 7-11 store to buy a snack n a drink. Even though it might be dangerous, I will still go cause I am really love the atmosphere. It is so quiet, so peaceful. Walking in the dark gave me a sense of bravery and the serenity give me a peaceful mind, where I can forget all the problems I have in my mind. U know what can make this better, listening to really smooth songs, 过敏 by 杨丞林 is my favourite in this class at this momemt... Yeah, i sound crazy but sometimes we really this to escape from our hectic life.

Will the Real Guy Kewney Please Stand Up?

To think that even BBC, the famous news network, can make such a mistake. The news channel mistaken a cab driver waiting at the reception as a IT expert, invited for a live broadcast interview. Video of the interview can be found on YouTube

Read more about it:
Daily Mail
Timesonline

10 Things I Hate About Commandments

This is one of the funniest parody I have seen. Made using the movie "The Ten Commandments". Well done 2 the people who did this. Hahahaa



And the first video done by the same people - Must Watch Jaws. Haha

阿雅的最后一次主持<我猜>

So sad, 阿雅 is leaving <我猜> to go US for further studies. It's been ten years since she started hosting this popular variety show in Taiwan. Gonna miss her funny antics in the show. The show will never be the same without her. Below is her hosting the show for the final time.

Happy Mother's Day, Mum...

Today's is Mother's Day. My wife and me together with my sisters went to pay mum a visit. How time flies... Mum has passed away for more almost half a year. Usually this time of the year, we will go out as family to have a meal to celebrate Mother's Day for her. This time, it is totally different. We still misses her very much. Happy Mother's Day, Mum....

Up... up.... and away.....

Have been planning to take my wife to try this this ever since I saw the advertisement in Bugis around 2 months ago. Finally did it today. It is a great experience. The balloon goes up to a height around 40 stories high or 150m. The view up there is fantastic. The feeling up there is as if you are floating. But most of the time, I am worrying that my camera will drop off (killer litter :p) My fear of heights does not help too especially when the strong wind cause the cage to wobbly, whereby my legs dully follows :p. Click on the photo on the right to see more pictures.

All in all it is wonderful ride. It cost $23 per adult but thanks to my colleague, Kavitha, who gave me a 30% coupon, it cost $16.10 each for us. The coupon and brochure can be found below. Take note the coupon only valid till end of May.

A video of the view up there

Writing this post in office. Getting restless working here. I dun feel any satisfaction working here. Although our job title is software engineer, all we did are liasing with dfferent groups/teams, testing and integration work. Everything is just a process, tasks are completed by following a set of procedures. We hardly do any development work as those are restricted to the engineers in India and US. The worse thing is my job role is factory support engineer. hence other than when there is a factory production coming up, most of the time, I am just sitting here waiting for something to happen. To others, this is very good for them. But for me, I feel very guilty and useless seeing my colleagues slugging away at their work. To some, this is a very easy job, but not for me. I am more like a techincal guy, I prefer to do real work like programming, debugging and technical stuff. Anyway, i have told my wife I will try to stay here for one year and see how things goes. After that, if I still feel the same way, I think it is better that I moved on.